photo ink vs regular ink

[lmhrva]

I have an old HP Photosmart 7520. Works great.  Only question is why does it use up all the Photo ink instead of the regular black ink when I am printing.  Looks like it prints things as a PDF?  How do I change that?  

[Dragon-Fur]

@lmhrva 

Good question.

Tell the printer to use the "regular" black ink cartridge for your document / PDF printing.

Select Plain Paper as opposed to leaving the paper type as "Automatic".

Best answer here:

Bob explains the use for the regular black 564 and the photo black 564 ink cartridges used in the Photosmart 7520 and the Photosmart 7525 printers.

Information contributed by Expert Bob_Headrick 

Explanation in Thread  Question regarding Photosmart 7525 / Photosmart 7520 – five ink cartridges

Partial Excerpt

The smaller cartridge is the photo cartridge, used for printing dark areas when photo paper is selected in the driver, or when "automatic" paper selection is enabled and the media type is detected as photo paper.  It may also be used in some cases when printing graphics on plain paper.  If you are printing on plain paper make sure "plain paper" is selected in the media type selection for the driver.

The Photosmart 7525 may require ink in all colors (including photo and black) to prevent clogging the printheads.  See the document here for information on how ink is used.  The Photosmart 7525 is an IIC printer in the terminology of that document.

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